Veteran's Day: Memorial Tablet

Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell -
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And I was hobbling back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-boards; so I fell
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;
For, though low down upon the list, I'm there;
"In proud and glorious memory" ... that's my due.
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he's never guessed.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west ...
What greater glory could a man desire?~S. Sassoon

An Brief Poem, for Armistice (i.e. Veterans) Day

"In time of dangeror in warGod and the soldier we adore.Danger past, andall things righted?God is forgottenand the soldier slighted."I seldom feel more than a slightly irked contempt for the "Support Our Troops" sort of warrior- and war-hugging that gets trotted out on days like today and the last weekend in May. But this one always seems somehow even more false, since the only real reason for it is to commemorate the end of the insanely stupid slaughter of WW1, which we in fact neither remember nor reverence.

As I tell anyone who "thanks" me for my service today; I didn't do it for you. Oh, and I'll take the bonus Congress promised me now, without a side of beatings and gas, thanks.

I remain stubbornly proud of my service and the ideals of my country that led me to that service.But of the country itself, its "leaders", and many of its people, I am no longer so sure.